Lie to me
by xentrya
Summary: When a pained Xena slaughters a bunch of cruel murderers in spite of Gabrielle's advice, everything turns upside down...Peace, war, redemption, nothing makes sense anymore and the Way of the Warrior has never appeared darker. The question is, how are things likely to evolve when a charmingly manipulative War God intervenes?
1. Upside down

" You've **killed **them?!"

Her voice was trembling and her mind simply refused to accept the fact that her impenetrable vision of reality was bleeding failure. For obvious reasons, her brain had blocked any harmful information that could have at least implied the possibility that all the hard work, all the reinforced lessons proved to be in the end a complete loss of time- or in other words, the rightful equal of a big, fat zero.

"Gabrielle! They've just slaughtered an entire village- women and children included! Did you expect me to pat them on the back or something?"

"That's so typical of you to say!"

"For crying out loud! They were murderers!"

"They were teenagers, Xena!" Gabrielle exploded in revolt and repulsion, pointing towards a bunch of scattered body parts situated but a couple of feet away from them.

" …**Teenagers**! Most of them probably didn't know what they were doing! They didn't deserve to die like that…..They deserved a fair trial! ….A second chance! They should have been treated like human beings!" "

An abruptly exhaled breath followed by a scandalized glare cast in the direction of the unjustifiably sympathetic Bard, was somehow meant to anticipate the violent outburst that was about to come.

"Those were not human beings, those were animals! A hoard of savages just like their parents!... **Beasts** that have nothing in common with neither civilization nor basic emotions! Look at that little girl's body! She was brutally raped and mutilated before they finally put her to death! They had her chained to that tree for days! If they hadn't killed her she would have died of internal bleeding in but a matter of hours! What does that tell you, huh? 'Still think that they didn't know what they were doing…. ? And you have the nerve to defend their cause?! Are you kidding me?! These people were my friends! They should thank the Fates from wherever in Tartarus they are that I was generous enough as to offer them a quick death !"

"You call **that** a quick death? You cut them to pieces! I could hear their screams from the other side of the forest! "

"Well they sure deserved worse!" the Warrior Princess grunted through clenched teeth, tightening the grip on her still dripping with claret, sword.

"That was not for you to decide Xena! They should have been brought to justice!"

"Justice?!" the sharpness of the question cut her lips like a knife, and for a moment there, as the air left her lungs, she strangely felt as if her head was on the verge of exploding.

"There's no justice for scums like them!" she continued, almost choking on her own maddening rage. " They don't even understand the idea of justice!...As for their carved bodies – or whatever's left of them- they might just serve as a warning for the rest of their tribe! I think their reduced brains could actually get this type of message! It's the only means of communication they care to tolerate, anyway!...You can deny it as long as you want to, but sometimes violence** is** the only answer Gabrielle! With some creatures words are useless!"

Hardly had Xena finished her little speech, that the still shaken up Bard was already rushing to spit back some venom, and despite of the fact that one could easily count on the fingers of one hand the number of words she had chosen to shame the Warrior with, what really managed to cause some damage, was the faint allusion to her nightmarish past.

"Right! You should know!"

The echo of that theatrically uttered line was resonant and it's effects devastating, creating a crater as deep as the pits of Tartarus inside Xena's barely pounding heart.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she inquired, trying not to sound too irritated, but failing miserably in her attempt to keep that nasty frown away from her forehead.

"It means that I've been preaching peace and forgiveness in vain all this time, without having anyone to listen to a word I've said! It means that you were given a second chance even when you didn't deserve it, Xena! You were a monster but no one hacked **you** to pieces!"

The Warrior Princess' eyes widened in disbelief, just to narrow in the form of a menacing, evil line, the following second. Nevertheless, when she did answer, her tone was in complete accordance with the disturbingly obvious self conceitedness flashing on the surface of her blurry eyes.

"That's only because everyone who dared try it, left this world prematurely! And just for the record, I've never ordered tortures and mutilations! I've never killed women and children! I was fighting for very different goals!"

Her voice was steely but the slight tremor in the corner of her mouth as well as her clenched jaw was more than enough for Gabrielle to know that she had hit a nerve.

"Yeah! You were fighting for the glory of Ares! I have to hand it to you Xena, that's a

particularly soul lifting goal! "

" Fuck Ares! …."

That was obviously the last drop. The Warrior Princess was officially fuming. Right out of nowhere, her previously grave but calm tone had turned into ear splitting screams.

"You just couldn't help it, could you? You just **had** to bring him up for discussion! "

"Well given the fact that you owe him that much as to wanna slaughter fifty **unarmed **kids, just because he asked you to….what else is there to say Xena?!"

"What are you talking about?! All he did was tell me about the attack! He knew my friends were here, he knew how important these people were for me! As for the weapons, the only reason for which these psychotic blood-drinkers had none, is that they broke them while trying to chop the bones of their victims! Have you gone blind ? Take a look around you! It's full of swords, axes and maces everywhere!"

Pretending to have missed the end of her friend's line, the battling Bard focused the remaining of her energy to sling some more mud at the War God's indisputably questionable reputation.

"Oh yeah? Well if he cared that much, why didn't he tell you sooner, when you could have still done something to prevent this…..this bloodbath? "

"He didn't know! "

"Right! And you believe him?!"

"**YES** I BELIVE HIM!"

"Hmmmm…." Gabrielle snorted loudly, shaking her head in utter amazement. Her face expressed much more than shock though…. There was something macabre about hearing Xena take Ares' side on….on….pretty much anything.

"What?" the Warrior princess demanded to know- with such deliberate ferocity that would have made right about anyone feel cold droplets of sweat trickling down their back.

"….Come on! How can you still trust him? After everything he's done to you!...To us! Does he have you that brainwashed? "

"He was telling the truth!"

"Yeah, and I'm Helen of Troy!"

"You know what ? " Xena finally concluded, her entire body convulsing with the overwhelming urge to strangle the Blonde Pacifist before her. "I don't need to justify my actions to anyone! I only did what I thought was right, so live with it or don't, ok?!"

The Bard wanted to answer, and she did. The only problem was that by the time the air got polluted with her words, there was no one present to decode their meaning any more, cause Xena had already turned her back on her and was heading for the forest.

"That's right, walk away! It's easier than facing the truth, you know!" a frustrated Gabrielle yelled behind her, growling angrily at the sound of that unnaturally harsh silence that followed…..

She might have overreacted, but she sure wasn't ready to admit it.

XXX

"Troubles in the Elysian Fields? "

As always, his voice was as soft as velvet but the content of his words was pure acid dressed up in dark, tasty chocolate.

"What are you doing here? " she barked, her temples pounding like crazy in spite of the cool evening air.

"Oh nothing much….just smelling the roses…."

"Well I see no roses here, so why don't you move your godly ass somewhere else ?"

It was rather a mordant order than a sarcastically playful interrogation. The God couldn't help feeling excited over it. He cracked a smile at her as he closed in the distance between them.

"You were the one who called my name…."

His eyes never left the mesmerizing azure shade of her irides. They were absolutely spectacular…so vivid, so full of life despite her obvious sorrow.

"Between **calling** your name and **cursing** your name there's a huge difference, Ares!"

He laughed this time….She was the only mortal who could get that kind of reaction out of him….

"I don't know about that; as a matter of fact, with you it's pretty much the same thing … Anyway….You did say my name….I'm here…"

"I've always wondered why I never felt the stringent need to have a dog…" she mumbled in the same ironic note as before, shifting her gaze towards the horizon the following second.

"Ouch! That was nasty…" he joked, feigning a mock-sad face just for effect. "So….what's the matter? Did you and Goldie Locks have a fight?"

"Eavesdropping again? Don't you have anything better to do all day long?"

"Better than keeping an eye on my Princess, you mean? Neahhh!"

"I'm not your Princess ! And it so happens that I have a name!"

She was playing defensive- Ares quickly realized, wincing in distaste at the lethal poison expertly injected in her every word. Still, he didn't appear neither impressed nor intimidated by the flaming hostility she was keen on displaying, on the contrary, when he finally took a seat on the uncomfortably cold grass behind her, his arms immediately snaked around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

She didn't flinch a muscle to resist him…..The strange thing was that he didn't seem at all surprised by her lack of reaction.

"She couldn't possibly understand, Xena…" he whispered lowly against her ear, his lips brushing in the process the flawless, bronze surface of her left cheek. "Her eyes and yours didn't see the same things back there in that village, for where she only saw dead bodies, you saw forever lost friends…."

The Warrior Princess listened but didn't reply. She only turned her head away, as if refusing the touch of his lips, a gesture that didn't affect the Olympian's intentions in any way, since his mouth simply focused on the crock of her neck instead….

Despite her best judgment, and ignoring all the explosive warnings that her past experiences with him began to send, she leaned into the warmth of his comforting embrace, shutting everything off for an indefinite period of time, resetting her overwhelmed body to only respond to the effect of his painfully tender yet passionate kisses.

The instant his hand began it's gradual descent towards her inner thigh though, she covered it with her own. He instantly got the message and put an end to his bitterly sweet ministrations.

A chaste kiss on top of her head let her know that he was well aware that when it came to their relationship, any type of idiotic behavior such as pressuring her when it was clearly not the case, was bound to end badly….at least for him…..

" She did lose some very dear friends across the years, Ares….She knows suffering when she sees it…."

"I'm not saying she didn't…..But you two share very opposite backgrounds, Darling. The way your hearts translate the idea of pain is very different….Don't expect too much from her when it comes to open- mindedness. She might be a bard, but let's face it: not even the most creative of spirits could accurately describe the horrors you've witnessed and lived during the past decade….."

Despite that vicious stab of pain tearing her soul apart, Xena was right about to protest, when a disturbingly accusing voice made her stomach twist into a geometrical shape impossible to reproduce.

"This is what I was talking about, Xena!….Brainwashed! "

Once more, the Warrior Princess was silent. When her lips finally parted, her words-barely audible- were addressed to Ares alone.

"Can you take me away from here?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes…"

…Then came a sigh, but in less than a blink they were gone. Gabrielle burst into tears almost instantly. Nothing made sense any more. From sunrise to sunset, the entire world had turned upside down.


	2. The hands of time

The room in which he had transported her was large and warm, but mostly dark and close to empty- just like Xena's soul was at the moment…..

The Warrior Princess cast a brief wondering gaze at her surroundings. The place looked more like a dungeon than a chamber. There were no windows so that she couldn't actually tell where they were, but the distinct smell of fresh snow had somehow managed to linger into the atmosphere, thus offering her all the clues she needed in order to take a guess.

"Thrace? " she casually asked, without moving an inch away from him…

…His arms were still tightly wrapped around her waist and to all appearances, he wasn't planning on letting go of her any time soon. She was fine with that…

As to indulge her with an answer though, a slight move of his fingers made a huge, gothic window appear on the eastern wall, revealing the most breathtaking landscape anyone could have ever imagined….Sky high peaks, clothed in diamond snow were shining in the fabulously colored lights of the setting sun, making thousands of artistically painted rainbows reflect their unmatchable beauty on the translucent surface of the fairy tale icy mantle covering the ground and trees.

"It's quiet out here. No priestesses, no servants, no nothing. "

He slowly turned her around to face him, until his temptingly half parted lips were but a hair's width away from her own….

"How do you want your room to be?"

For right about anyone, that question would have sounded just as absurd as the rest of the situation was, but she knew better. She was well aware why he had bothered to ask….He cared…

"It doesn't matter….." she murmured, doing her best not to sound as torn apart by her inner turmoil as she really was.

"Show me….." he insisted, and before she could even think about voicing a protest, the tips of his fingers were already brushing her forehead- a feather like touch that she recalled far too well, and that had the most enslaving, irresistible effect..Even her lungs forgot to breathe ...

Her eyes closed almost automatically without her being able to do anything to control them. In less than a blink, well buried images from her drained out and tangled memory, rushed to the surface as if blindly obeying the War God's command.

Ares flinched. She had just pictured his private chambers from Sparta…The same place where, totally fascinated by her absolutely surreal presence, she had once brought him on the verge of admitting that he actually had genuine feelings for her….The same place he had taken her to when Solan had died….

By the time Xena opened her eyes, the utter darkness of the room had faded, eaten alive by the bright light of the playful flames of the torches and of the fireplace, and along with it a whole new reality appeared into view. They were no longer in the Thracian mountains….He had taken her back to the only location to which her troubled subconsciousness had managed to associate the idea of comfort and home….

Red and black oriental mosaic patterns were decorating the walls, giving the place the impression of a splendid Indian palace rather than a Greek fortress built in the middle of nowhere.

Everything inside was simple but elegant, each and every item attentively selected to create an overall sensation of peace and relaxation, of inner balance ; an utopian oasis turned real for her and her alone…..the ultimate refuge…

Soft plush rugs were covering the cold marble floors and the carefully sculpted mahogany furniture smelt unbelievably fresh….an aroma strikingly similar to the one of rising dust after a heavy summer rain… An unmistakable scent of moist soil that instinctively made her wanna fill her lungs with air….

Despite herself, a sad smile made way to the Warrior Princess' lips. Everything was just the way she remembered it…..As if not one single hour had passed since their last encounter….

Simultaneously, the War God let out a barely audible sigh of relief…He searched for her eyes, but she looked away, as if ashamed for having involuntarily shared- with him out of all people- such a dark, personal and incriminating secret.

"I can change it if you want me too…." he whispered hot against her lips while cupping her face in his hands.

For what seemed like forever, she made an effort to organize her thoughts….His amber irides were burning a hole right through her skull though, they were like lasers, forcing her brain to stop any other form of activity except for the one of wanting him even closer to her slightly shivering form.

"It's fine…." she finally stated, but the words sounded strangely unfamiliar, as if she hadn't been the one to utter them, as if they were some unimportant quotation she had heard at some point in the past, a sentence than belonged to someone else and that she was now accurately reproducing…".. just fine…thank you…."

He looked pleased with her answer, but he preventively refused to state anything in return for the following seconds.

Nevertheless, when his musing gaze finally materialized in the form of a voiced reply, Xena instantly realized that the brief, informative line had nothing to do with her own opinion on the matter.

" You look exhausted…You should try to get some rest…."

A dark blue satin negligee materialized on her body, replacing her armor, and, taking her completely by surprise, she suddenly felt her long raven tresses cascading down her shoulders, wrapping her in a protective mantle, meant to make her shoulders feel less naked.

Once again, she didn't fight his choices. She was way too crushed by that dreadful feeling of obliterating pain to even dream of contradicting him….

Apart from that, her usually flawless self control was playing cruel tricks on her, her gaze lingering absently on the God's broad, generously exposed chest, for outrageously more seconds than she would have normally allowed herself to. She didn't even notice that he had taken one step back, giving her some space, when the bewitching question she was anxiously waiting for, finally rolled off his tongue.

"Is there anything I can do for you…..?"

She certainly failed to catch the discreet implications of his words.

"Turn back the hands of time…..Turn back time, for me…." she murmured, aware that the agony in her voice could give him the chills like nothing else could.

A light caress on her left cheek let her know that she was asking for the impossible.

She turned around almost immediately, without wasting any more words, and headed for the bed.

Before he knew it, she was under the covers, her body turning as rigid as if it had been a lifeless block of uncarved marble.

With hesitant, slow steps, he walked towards her. He took a seat on the edge of the bed, but she didn't even flinch.

Their eyes met almost immediately, but for the following couple of minutes they were both silent. He had no comforting speech in mind and that dry "Princess, you know I can't" didn't prove to be as useful as he had expected it to. …

"Not even Zeus himself is allowed to do that…." the apology quickly followed, but to no avail…

For once that night, he didn't know what to do…He felt just as weak and powerless as any of those pitiful mortals walking the Earth were during each day of their lame, senseless lives..

A warm tear had already glided down Xena's tormented face before her beautiful eyes shut tight.

A visibly afflicted War God barely repressed the urge to scream out his frustration.


	3. New reasons to hate me

She fell asleep for a couple of hours. A restless sleep in which the only thing she dreamt about was an endless rain of blood washing over her completely bare body. There was no place to hide, no shelter nearby to take cover, but than again, it was not the accursed presence of that warm liquid trailing down her skin that bothered her the most, but that distinct, metallic smell that she was so familiarized with…the smell of death, of forcefully taken lives….The kind of smell that unavoidably used to fill each village that had the misfortune to be crossed by her army in the past, and which she was still trying so hard to forget….

She woke up with a jolt, in the middle of the night, desperately gasping for air, as if having returned from the muddy waters of the Styx. She tried to inhale , but no air entered her lungs as if there was something blocking her windpipe. She took a deeper breath and some oxygen finally pierced her chest in an almost painful manner. She instinctively covered her mouth with the back of her hand…..She felt like she was about the vomit any second….

"Are you ok Darling?"

His voice sounded like an unearthly, far away echo that had nothing to do with the heavy elements of that material world surrounding her….It took her more than one full minute to realize that he must have been standing there, by her side- gently caressing her hair- from the very moment her eyes had flown open , and her half paralyzed with fear body had began to react.

She just nodded, still unable to speak.

He wrapped his arms protectively around her , but she didn't move. It was then, in the unique comfort of his embrace- when her brain finally started to function normally again- that she could hear herself breathing. She was inhaling impressive quantities of air at extremely short intervals, as if she had been running for miles…..She made an effort to control herself but the only thing she managed to do was to burst into tears. Biting her lower lip in the attempt to keep quiet was definitely useless now that her entire body was trembling like a leaf under the effect of those shuddering sobs.

In the meantime, the War God himself was struggling to keep his calm. Seeing her as pale as a wax statue wasn't helping his nervous system in any way though. He wanted to say something, but the words piled up in his throat and refused to come out. He hadn't seen her torn apart like that in ages….not since Solan's death, at least...

The first impulse was to tighten his hold on her, but the force he had placed in that embrace was already ridiculous; it would have taken just a bit more extra energy to break a bone or two in her body. Consequently, he cupped her face in his hands instead, and tenderly wiped the tears away from her cheeks.

Just like a wounded, defenseless little girl who was now getting all her father's attention, she suddenly stopped crying, staring at him with those unnaturally blue irides as if his every move was hipnotizing. As his thumb brushed away even the last salty trace of her tears, her lips parted almost involuntarily at the shooting sensation offered by the rare suavity of his goldy touch.

When their burning gazes connected, the contact lasted but a meaningless instant before their mouths found their way towards each other, lips crushing under the pressure of that bruising, consuming kiss that followed.

By the time the God managed to realize what was happening, her fingers were already gripping the edges of his leather vest, pulling him even closer to her, so impossibly close that her temptingly round breasts were now pressing disturbingly hard against his chest….

A tidal wave of arousal washed over him immediately, shutting down his brain for several seconds to everything else except that intoxicating scent of desire spreading through each and every pore of her smooth, silky skin…She was irresistible…and the taste of her lips, the warmth of her breath mixing with his own…her illegally hard nipples poking obnoxiously into that flimsy fabric barely covering her form and digging into his chest…..He was out of control…

It was no wonder that his fingers entangled into her hair almost on their own, mercilessly, possessively, demanding , while his other hand pulled down with remarkable speed the thin straps of her negligee , thus exposing the demonically addictive beauty of those breasts that got him to the point of loosing his mind….He eagerly cupped one, brushing it's nipple with his index and he was right about to push her on her back and take her on the highest peaks of ecstasy, when, the awareness of what he was doing and mostly the unfortunate circumstances in which he was about to make his move, hit him like a tone of bricks.

"Whoa there…! " he exclaimed, taken aback by that unbreakable chain of unanticipated reactions, gently freeing himself from her grasp. "You don't wanna do this….You're just... hurt and... tired…" he reminded her, despite of the fact that he could clearly feel her body responding to his nearness.

"Make me forget…" she pleaded, brushing his gorgeous lips with her thumb in the process, just like he had done but a couple of seconds earlier, and despite the fact that her voice was stern and emotionless, he could distinctly see that very familiar sparkle in her eyes…She wanted him….badly….

He barely fought the urge to kiss the curve of her neck….she was so unbelievably inviting….

"You won't forget…It would only numb the pain…. "he casually stated, on a considerably calmer note now, meant too convince rather himself than her of the cruel doze of reality that was bound to pulverize her soul at first light.

"Then lie to me…..Lie to me that everything will be different tomorrow…that the pain would be gone….."

"Princess…."

Despite the aching need to leave any other insignificant and useless detail aside and just ram his cock inside her, he pushed her slightly away from him, as if he were pushing the devil incarnate aside.

When he spoke again, his voice was thick with the repressed craving to fill her, to take away her pain "…you'll just hate me in the morning…."

"I hate you anyway….This will only add some extra incentive…." the dark, seductive line was cunningly uttered, and there was a lingering ache in her words that he simply couldn't stand hearing….

His gaze shifted away from her the same moment that his hands withdrew completely from her hair…..

…The surreal magnetism of her perfectly traced body was overwhelming….

His jaw clenched and his fingers twitched before curling into a fist, as he finally made up his mind: he wasn't going any further that night. Something inside his head kept repeating him like a broken record that making love to her while she was vulnerable and exposed like that was not one of the brightest ideas he had ever had…For once, he was willing to trust his judgement and do the right thing...

..For a split second, Xena actually flinched...He was right about to get up and leave, when her light, smooth palm touched his shoulder. As expected, he froze….Her caress was like pure electricity….

"Stay…." she murmured yearningly against his ear, sending shivers straight to his very core, driving him completely up the wall..

When he glanced back down at her and their eyes met once more, he knew that there was no way in Tartarus he could have said no to her in the first place….She was too damn attractive….obsessive…just like a hot shot of heroin...He didn't have neither the strength nor the will to refuse her…..

"What the Hell….you do need new reasons to hate me after all…" he casually mumbled while with a rough pull he ripped the flimsy negligee off her already half naked form...

…..Next thing he knew, he was pushing her thighs apart….


End file.
